Why do you keep insisting it's someone we know?
It's no one from our high school!
It's someone you went to high school with, since you go to different colleges.
- Doug, I appreciate your coming here. - Dad, spare me.
He knows the details of our lives.
Who, in your high school, has become homosexual or is deep into drugs?
- About 15 people. - I don't want to know.
I find it really insulting that you assume it has to be a guy.
He could have been with a girl in high school.
That's your problem. You're so limited.
- That's why I'm going to climb mountains. - You're not.
We have not invested all this money in you to scale the face of K2.
Is that all I am? An investment?!
No. Track down everyone in your class - male, female, whatever.
Not just homosexuals, drug addicts. He could be a dealer.
Why do you look at me when you say that? You think I'm an addict? A pusher?
I resent the accusations.
No one is accusing you of anything. Now, sit down!
I don't wanna know!
Nobody is accusing anyone of anything.
I'm asking you to do a detective search. Find out from your high- school class
if anyone has met a black kid pretending to be a movie star's son.
He promised you parts in Cats?
It wasn't just that, it was fun!
You went to Cats. You said it was an all-time low in a lifetime of theatregoing.
- Film is a different medium. - You said "Aeschylus didn't invent theatre
to have it end up a bunch of chorus kids wondering who will go to kitty heaven."
- I don't remember saying that. - That was Starlight Express.
Maybe he'll make a movie of that and you can all be on roller skates.
- This is so humiliating! - So pathetic!
- So racist. - It's not racist!
Douglas!
- If I remember correctly, you loved Cats. - I hated it!
Here is a copy of your yearbook. Get the phone numbers of everyone in your class.
How can I contact anyone from high school? I've outgrown them.
How can you outgrow them? You graduated last year.
Charge the calls to my phone.
- Never! - This is the KGB!
You're always on the phone. Now I ask you to make calls, you become reticent?
This is the entire McCarthy period.
- I just wanna get one thing straight. - Finally we hear from the peanut gallery.
You gave him my pink shirt? You gave a complete stranger my pink shirt?!
That shirt was a Christmas present from you!
I treasured that shirt! I loved that shirt!
My collar has grown from weightlifting. You saw my arms had grown,
you saw my neck had grown, and you bought me that shirt for my new body!
I loved that shirt! My first shirt for my new body, and you gave that shirt away?!
I can't believe you! I hate this life, and I hate you!
- You never do anything for me! - You block me.
I'm a pathetic extension of your eighth-rate personality.
Social Darwinism pushed beyond all limits!
- You gave him my pink shirt! - You want me to be all you weren't!
You said "drugs" and looked at me?!
Oh, God. I know the feeling.
When the children turn.
- At least we inspired them to take action. - They hunted through the yearbook.
- Oh, my God! - Did you kiss him?
- N... Well, yeah. - Oh, come on, Tess!
- What about that guy? Nah! - No. No.
- No. No, no, no. - Wait a minute. Trent Conway.
(boys) Trent Conway.
- Look at those beady eyes. - Trent Conway. He's at MlT.
So I went to MlT.
He was there in his computer room.
And I just pressed him and pressed him and pressed him.
Yes. I knew Paul.
I had this strapped to me.
What happened between you?
It was...
It was... a rainy night in Boston.
He was in a doorway.
I met him.
And I took him back to my place.
What's this?
- My address book. - Damn!
All these names and addresses. Tell me about these people.
This is where I wanted you to be. Right here.
- Tell me about these people, man. - I just wanna look at you.
Sorry!
- Is these all rich people? - No. Hand-to-mouth. On a higher plateau.
You got to be rough to be with rich people.
Gotta have money. You gotta be buyin' 'em presents an' everything all the time.
Not at all. When rich people do something nice for you, you give them a pot of jam.
That's what pots of jam is for?
Orange. Grapefruit. Strawberry.
But fancy. They have entire stores filled with fancy pots of jam wrapped in cloth.
English or French.
I tell you what I'm gonna do. I pick a name, you tell me everything about 'em.
Where they live, secrets, everything.
And for every name...
you get a piece of my clothes.
All right.
Kittredge.
Talbot and Woodrow.
Talbot, called "Tess", was anorexic, and was in a hospital for a while.
Oh, really, now?
Woodrow, known as "Woody", has barbells for brains.
(blows)
They parents.
Ouisa and Flan, for "Flanders", Kittredge.
Rhode lsland, I believe. Newport.
But not along the ocean. The street behind the ocean.
He's an art dealer. They have a Kandinsky.
Kan-what-sky?
A Kandinsky.
Uh...
A double-sided Kandinsky. I feel like Scheherazade! (laughs)
I don't want you to leave me, Paul.
I'll go through my address book and I'll tell you about family after family.
You'll never not fit in again.
We'll even, uh, give you a new identity.
I'll make you the most sought-after young man in the East.
And then, one day, I'll come into one of these homes.
And you'll be there. And I'll be presented to you.
And I'll pretend to meet you for the first time.
And our friendship'll be witnessed by my friends.
And our parents' friends.
And if it all happens under their noses...
they can't judge me.
And they can't disparage you.
I'll make you a guest in their houses.
Now ask me another name.
I'd like to try for the shirt.
That's enough for today.
Paul stayed with me for three months.
You remember little Trent Conway?
The kid got his address book, with our names in it.
- Yeah. You could be next. - Yes.
Now, this is the way you must speak.
Hear my accent. Hear my voice.
Now, you never say you're going horseback riding.
- You say you're going riding. - (grunts)
And don't say "couch".
Say "sofa".
And you, you say "boddill". "Have a boddill o' beer."
It's "bottle".
Say "Bottle of beer".
Boddill o' beer.
Bottle of beer.
Boddill of beer. What?
Bottle of beer.
Bottle... of beer.
We went through the address book letter by letter.
Paul vanished by the Ls.
He took the address book with him.
Well... he's already been in all your houses.
Maybe I will meet him again. I sure would like to.
- His past? His real name? - I don't know anything about him.
It was a rainy night in Boston. He was in a doorway. That's all.
He took stuff from you?
Besides the address book?
He took my stereo, my sport jacket, my word processor.
And my laser printer.
And my skis.
And my TV.
- Will you press charges? - No.
It's a felony.
- Why do they want to find him? - They say to help him.
If there's a crime, the cops will get involved.
We really must keep in touch. We were really good friends for a brief bit in school.
- Really good. - Won't you press charges?
Oh, please.
Can you believe it? Paul learned all that in three months.
Who'd have thought it? Trent Conway, the Henry Higgins of our time.
Paul must have looked at all those names in that book and said "I am Columbus."
"I am Magellan. I will sail into this new world."
I read somewhere that everybody on this planet
is separated by only six other people.
Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet.
The president of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names.
I find that extremely comforting that we're so close,
but... I also find it like Chinese water torture that we're so close,
because you have to find the right six people to make the connection.
It's not just big names, it's anyone.
A native in a rainforest, a Tierra del Fuegan, an Eskimo.
I am bound - you are bound -
to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people.
It's a profound thought.
How Paul found us.
How to find the man whose son he claims to be, or perhaps is. Although I doubt it.
How everyone is a new door opening into other worlds.
Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet.
But... to find the right six people.
- Hi, Ouisa. - Hi!
- Still going to Rome? - Tomorrow!
- Are you going to the Sistine Chapel? - It's closed.
- Cleaning it. - When in Rome...
You must know these people.
- Oh! - Oh, wonderful.
I've always wanted to meet him. We'll call him just as soon as we get in.
(Flan) Rome is always remarkable, but to see the Sistine Chapel like this!
(Ouisa) To stand at the top of the scaffolding!
The colours... are vibrant.
We went to Rome on business, but, thanks to Michelangelo...
- I think I have a buyer for that piece. - I don't think I want to sell.
They restored the chapel.
They've taken off years of smoke and tourists, and now it's brand-new.
Staggering.
But what happened to Sidney Poitier's son?
We put all of that out of our heads.
The package would be more lucrative for you if you included that piece.
- I've heard so many stories. - Like what?
- That he stole money and jewellery. - No! Never!
Can we get down to business, please?
- Good day. - Ah!
All right. I am humiliated, but what the hell.
The day after we came back from Rome, we were stepping out of a taxi from lunch.
Our doorman, whom we tip at Christmas and any time he does anything nice for us,
our doorman spit at my husband, J Flanders Kittredge. He spit at him!
Thank you, Maurice. Ooh!
Darling, they don't need to know every detail.
- I know all about your son. - What about my son?
Not the little shit that lives here. The secret son.
- The Negro son you deny! - Negro son?
The son you make live in Central Park while you're gallivanting!
- Do you have a black son? - No!
This is how rumours get started and set in cement.
- The girl told me everything. - Who?
- She wants her money. - Who?
I'm keeping her in a safe place. Come, come, come.
The next chapter.
My boyfriend and I took a picnic into the park.
So, do they have any black people in Utah?
- Maybe two. - I saw them once. Two black people.
The Mormons brought in two.
- Do you think it'll hurt me? - What'll hurt you?
My resemblance to Liv Ullmann.
She won the all-state competition for comedy and drama.
Really? My gosh!
The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth like the gentle rain from heaven.
Yeah.
And we study. And we wait tables.
Cos you have to have technique.
Like the painters.
Cézanne looked for the rules behind the spontaneity of Impressionism.
- That's a painter? - We know nothing about painting.
My dad loves painting.
He has a Kandinsky, but he loves Cézanne the most.
- He lives up there. - What?
Yeah. Count. Six windows down. On the corner.
John Flanders Kittredge.
His chums call him "Flan".
I was the child of Flan's hippie days. His radical days.
He went down South as a freedom marcher to register black voters.
- You did? - No!
Can't you just see me marching down South for freedom now?
Yes. Yes, I can.
His friends were killed. He met my mother and registered her.
Married her in a fit of righteousness, knocked her up with me,
and came back here and abandoned her.
You didn't!
Flan, shame.
He's now a fancy art dealer.
Won't see me.
The new wife, the white wife,
the Louisa-Kittredge-call-me-Ouisa wife, the mother-of-the-new- children wife...
Your brothers and sisters.
They go to Andover and Exeter and Harvard and Yale.
The awful thing is, my father started out good.
My mother says "There's a good man inside J Flanders Kittredge."
There is, darling. There is. Flan thinks he's part of some sinister plot.
No, it's all too creepy. I don't even like to talk about it.
He would see you if he's that good. He can't forget you entirely.
- I call him, he hangs up. - Go to his office.
He doesn't have one. He works there. They won't even let me in the elevator.
- Dress up as a messenger. - Say you got a masterpiece for him.
Say "I got the Mona Lisa in the truck."
I don't want to embarrass him.
Oh, this is so fucking tacky!
Do you two love each other?
A lot.
That's good.
- These are nice kids. - Yeah. They work for a living.
(laughter)
- I hope we can meet again. - Yeah. Hey, where do you live?
Live?
I'm home.
You don't live in the streets?
You guys are such assholes! I mean, where would I live?
- You can stay with us. - We just have a flat in a tenement.
It's over a roller disco. The last of the roller discos.
But it's quiet by 5am, and a great narrow space.
(girl) You have the couch. The tub is in the kitchen, but there's light in the morning.
- Hello. - Hello.
He opened up a whole new world to us.
It's all anybody wants, isn't it? A new world?
- You say... you're going riding. - Riding.
And never say "couch". It's "sofa".
- Sofa. - Sofa.
And you say "boddill".
It's "bottle". Bottle of beer.
- Boddill of beer. - No. Bottle of beer.
- Bottle. - Boddill of beer.
Oh. See? Bottle of beer.
And never be afraid of rich people. You know what they love?
A fancy pot of jam.
Really. That's all.
Get a patron. That's what you need. You shouldn't be waiting tables.
You're going to wake up one day, and that temporary job will be your full-time life.
- He stayed with them for... - Two or three weeks.
He sunk his heels in.
- I'm moving out of here. - You can't.
My father answered my letter. He's giving me $1,000, and that's just for starters.
He sold a Cézanne to the Japanese and made millions.
Now he can give me money without her knowing it.
I knew it.
I'll give you the money to put on any play. Agents will come. You'll be discovered.
And when you win Oscars, both of you, you'll look in the camera and thank me.
- I wanna thank Paul Kittredge. - Thanks, Paul.
(Paul laughs)
One hitch - I'm going to meet him in Maine. He's visiting his parents.
My grandparents, whom I've never met. He's finally gonna tell them about me.
Can you see the look on my parents' face if a black kid showed up? "Hi, Grandma."
- Flan, your parents are dead. - (laughter)
He's gonna give me money.
I can get my mama that beauty parlour she's wanted all her life.
One problem - how am I gonna get to Maine?
The wife checks all the bills.
Where the hell am I going to get $250 to get to Maine?
How long would you need it for?
I'll be gone a week.
But I could wire it back to you.
- We could lend it to him for a week. - If something happens...
You're like his stepmother, holding the purse strings.
No. We worked too hard to save that.
I'm sorry, Paul, we just can't.
Look, no problem. I understand.
- I'll meet you after work. - Sure.
If your dad loves you, he'll get you the ticket.
He does. It'll work out.
Hey. Posture. Stand up straight. Don't slump. Attitudes of defeat.
The girl worked just to stay alive.
She was one of those armies of people who come to New York filled with dreams,
and end up on a treadmill, working and working, forgetting why they came here.
There must be some mistake. It says my joint account. Can you see the numbers?
That's right. That's my name and his name, my joint account! Who closed it?!
I was furious. I can't tell you how furious I was.
Then I went home to my luxurious penthouse. And I waited for hours.
- Where's the money? - Hi.
Just let me explain. Paul found some extra money of his own.
So he took me to the Rainbow Room.
He would've treated you, only you had to work.
We rented these tuxedos. Isn't it a gas?
How did we get this table?
I know the right names to drop.
He's gonna give us the money back. And then I'm takin' you to the Rainbow Room.
I brought you matches.
It's not that expensive for what you get.
It's not a bargain, but it's worth it.
Mm. Wonderful bouquet.
"Bouquet"?
The taste of wine. Always remember, the wine from the even-numbered years
is superior to the wine from the odd-numbered years.
- Cheers. Skol. Prosit. - Mud in your eye.
You're just about the greatest.
- You wanna dance? - Elizabeth hasn't seen anything like here.
I wish she was...
Who do we dance with?
We're guys.
Every moment in life is a learning experience.
Or what good is it? Right?
- Right? - Yes.
Then let this bunch of jerks see class.
I swear, nothin' like this ever happened in Utah.
Nothin' like that must have ever happened there cos they asked us to leave.
It was so funny!
(laughter)
Around the park, sir!
We don't have any money.
Amigo, when will you learn? Money is the one commodity you can always get.
(Paul howls)
Hyah!
I'm gonna have to explain to Elizabeth about the money. She gets so nervous.
Hey, Paul, come on. Stop that.
I was wondering if I could fuck you.
I don't do things like that.
That's what makes it so nice.
You don't.
And he did.
And it was fantastic.
We came here for experience, right?
We can use this, right?
You're a fool! Your father is right! You are a fool!
We came here for experience. My father is not right. I can't have him be right.
- It's gon... - Don't touch me.
(driver) Hey! Hey!
Hey! Come back here!
Hey!
Argh!
Paul!
Look at me.
Elizabeth.
I didn't come here to do this, or to lose that, or to be this, or to do this to you.
Not to you.
Look at me.
I couldn't look at him. Spent the night thinking about having no money.
About Paul and his father. So, this morning...
Sir?
Sir? I need to get up to see some people named Kittredge.
Are they expecting you?
Kittredge has a black son he makes live in the park who took money from me.
- Mr Kittredge has what?! - His son owes me money!
You have to call and write them a letter. Yes?
"Quality of mercy is not strained." Well, fuck you, quality of mercy!
Hey. It's trouble with Mr Kittredge's Negro son. I take care of it. Don't worry.
All over the building that I had abandoned some mistake of my past in Central Park.
- But it's too fantastic. - It was so embarrassing.
- That's horrible. - It wasn't so embarrassing.
I bet Flan loves to be outraged.
- I do not! - You do too!
- Flan loves getting into high dudgeon. - And look at his cheeks turn all rosy.
Dudgeon becomes him.
To high dudgeon.
Now... can we get down to business?
Do we have a story for you? We were at the roller disco two clients opened.
I hadn't skated in I hate to tell you how many years.
We came outside giddy and reeling. And you wouldn't believe what we saw.
- The blood hadn't yet reached the gutter. - It was oozing slowly towards the kerb.
The body must have just landed there in a clump.
The boy had just jumped from above. He could have landed on us.
(woman) We just missed it by minutes.
Rick! Oh, my God!
Rick! Rick!
- She'll press charges. - I want Paul dead.
Rick's dead. You bet your life I'll press charges.
We're very sorry. Is there anything we can do to help?
That Paul's a menace. We could have been killed. Throats slashed.
He wasn't going to kill us. We haven't seen him since that night.
- Find him. We might have a case. - Find him?
- How do we find him? - We could tell the papers. Call The Times.
- Ooh, let me. I have friends at The Times. - I don't wanna know.
- They'll publish it. - Someone will see it.
- And turn him in. - We'll find him.
Six degrees.
"Who says New Yorkers don't have a heart?"
"Smart, sophisticated, tough New Yorkers, such as the J Flanders Kittredges,
who opened their homes and pocketbooks to a young man, learned yesterday
they had been boondoggled by a confidence man now wanted by police."
- Did you see the piece in The Times? - We were in Squaw Valley.
We came off very well. I forgot to mention your foundation.
You could wallpaper the Empire State Building with the copies Flan had made.
- Come to dinner with us after. - Can't.
- Work. - Auction.
- Matisse. - Ooh!
Oh, no. Matisse on an off day. But our people are prepared to go to well over...
- Don't tell all the family secrets. - Well over $12,000,000!
- Out of which you will keep? - Not much in these days.
- Oh, boy. Bring back the '80s. - Uh-huh.
We'll have to give most of it away. But it gives us credibility in this new market.
It's all outta whack. Everything's up, everything's down.
- Did you ever hear from Poitier's son? - No.
Did you ever hear from the boy?
- Oh, we're here to honour your guest. - But I keep hearing about this story.
I heard about it last week in Southampton.
- It's amazing. - No, really. To get the UN to finally...
- She can't save the world every day. - (all laugh)
This is my supper, and I command you to sing.
- This is lunch. - What happened?
There is one last chapter, which happened the other night.
Ouisa, may I?
The Matisse will be mine for an hour or so
Then, regrettably, it has to go
- (Tess) So, what are you wearing? - I'm totally dolled up. The blue satin.
Darling, I have to tell you. A sign I saw today -
"Cruelty-free cosmetics." A store was selling cruelty-free cosmetics.
That is a beautiful thing.
Do you realise the agony companies put rabbits through just to test eye shadow?
Oh, darling, I know that.
I was referring to the phrase - "cruelty-free cosmetics".
Should eliminate all traces of time, cellulite...
Mother, I'm getting married.
You were going to Afghanistan.
I'm going to get married, and then I'm going to Afghanistan.
One country at a time. You're not getting married.
lmmediately so negative.
I know everyone you know, and you're not marrying any of them.
The arrogance that you assume you know everyone I know!
The way that you say that! "I know everyone you know."
Unless you met them in the last two days.
- (phone rings) - Wait. Hold on.
Nobody ever calls on that number. Mother!
Hello?
(Paul) Hello?
Paul?
I saw the story in the paper.
I didn't know he killed himself. He gave me that money. I didn't steal it.
I'll put you on hold. I'm talking to my child.
Put me on hold and you'll never hear from me again.
Yes...
- Mother, can I t...? - (dialling tone)
You have to turn yourself in. The boy committed suicide.
The girl is pressing charges. You stole that money.
Turn yourself in. Make it easy on yourself. They're gonna get you.
Learn when you're trapped. You have such promise. You need help.
- Would you help me? - What do you want me to do?
Stay with you.
- That is impossible! - Why?
My husband feels you betrayed him.
- Do you? - You're a lunatic!
Picking up that dreck off the street. Are you suicidal? Do you have AlDS?
Are you infected?
I don't have it. It's a miracle, but I don't.
Do you feel I betrayed you? If you do, I will hang up and never bother you again.
Where have you been?
Travelling.
Are you in trouble? I mean, more trouble.
No. I only visited you.
I didn't like the first people so much. They just went out and left me alone.
I didn't like the doctor. He was too eager to please.
And he just left me alone.
But you - you and your husband - we all stayed together.
- What did you want from us? - Everlasting friendship.
Nobody has that.
- You do. - What do you think we are?
Oh. You're going to tell me secrets? You're not what you appear to be?
You have no secrets. Trent Conway told me everything your kids have told him.
What did our kids tell him about us?
I don't tell that. Save that for blackmail.
- Perhaps I'd better hang up. - No!
I went to a museum. I like Toulouse-Lautrec.
As well you should.
I read the Andy Warhol diaries.
I see you're becoming an aesthete.
- Are you laughing at me? - No. I read them too.
I've read "The Agony and the Ecstasy" by Irving Stone, about Michelangelo.
Oh, well, you're ahead of me there.
Have you seen the Sistine Chapel?
Oh, yes.
I went right to the top in a rickety old elevator and watched the men clean it.
You've been to the top of the Sistine Chapel?
Stood right under the hand of God touching the hand of man.
Batti! Batti!
Oh!
One of the workmen said "Hit it! Hit it! It's only a fresco."
Hit!
So I did. I slapped God's hand.
You... you slapped God's hand?
Do you know what they clean it with? All this modern technology.
- Q-Tips and water. - No!
Clean away the years of soot, grime, paint-overs.
Q-Tips and water, changing the history of Western art. Vivid colour.
- Take me to see it. - Take you to see it?
- They think you murdered someone. - Can you give me a hand with these?
- (whispers) Paul. - Paul?
- I'll call that detective. - (phone rings)
Who's that? Hello?
- Dad! We were cut off. - Oh, Tess, hi.
- I'm getting married! - Call back.
I'm getting married and going to Afghanistan!
- I can't talk about this... - I am gonna ruin my life and get married.
Throw away everything you want me to be. It's the only way to hurt you!
- (hangs up) - Jesus.
- (phone rings) - Yeah?
- I have that kid on the line. - Find out where he is.
Find out where he is.
Um, look, why don't you come here? Where are you?
You'll have the cops waiting.
- Tell him he has to trust us. - You have to trust us!
- Why? - Cos we like you!
- We like him? Where is he? - Who's there?
It's, um...
- It's Flan! - Oh, God.
Are you in tonight? I could come and make a feast for you.
- No, we're going out tonight. - Are you crazy?!
Tell a crook we're going out, the house is empty?
- Where are you going? - Sotheby's.
- And the key is under the mat. - Hi! Can I come to Sotheby's?
- Shoot! I've lost the detective. - Paul says hi.
- Hi. - Sotheby's.
- Wonderful. I'll come. - No. You can't.
- Why? I was helpful last time. - You were helpful about the Cézanne.
- Really? You know... - You impressed Geoffrey. Where are you?
I was thinking maybe that's what I should do, is what you do, in art,
but making money out of art, meeting people, and not working in an office.
You're just seeing the glamorous side. There's a whole grotty side that...
I could easily learn the grotty.
You have to have art history, language, economics.
I'm fast. I could do it. Do your kids want to?
It's not that. It's not a profession you hand down from gen...
What am I doing talking career counselling to you?!
You embarrassed me. You stole money. There's a warrant for your arrest.
- Goddammit! - No, don't!
- I can't believe he sucked me in again. - You made him hang up.
- I'm here. - You are?
Who are you? What's your real name?
If you let me stay with you, I'll tell you.
That night was the happiest night I ever had.
That was the happiest night he ever had.
Oh, please. I'm not a bullshitter, but never bullshit a bullshitter.
Now, get rid of him, Ouisa.
You look great, dear. Tonight's big business. Get him off the phone.
Why?
You let me use all the parts of myself that night.
That was magical, that Salinger stuff.
Graduation speech at Groton two years ago.
Your cooking?
Other people's recipes.
Did you see Donald Barthelme's obituary?
He said that collage was the art form of the 20th century.
Everything is somebody else's.
Not your children. Not your life.
No.
You got me there. That is mine. That is nobody else's.
You don't sound happy.
There is so much you don't know.
You are so smart.
- And so stupid. - Don't you ever say I'm stupid!
Have some flexibility. You're stupid not to realise what you could be.
- What could I be? - So much.
- With you behind me. - You liked that night?
I've thought since that you were laughing at us.
No!
You picked up that awful thing to show us your contempt.
I was so happy I wanted to add sex to it. Don't you do that?
No.
- I'll tell you my name. - Please.
It's Paul Poitier-Kittredge.
It's a hyphenated name.
Paul...
listen to me.
You need help. Go to the police. You'll be over it all the sooner. You can start...
- Start what? - Your life.
Will you help me?
I will help you. But first, you have to go to the police, you have to go to jail.
And will you send me books and Polaroids of you and cassettes and letters?
- Yes. - Will you visit me?
I will visit you.
And wear your best clothes and knock 'em dead.
I'll knock 'em dead. You have to be careful in prison. Use condoms.
I won't have sex in prison. I only have sex when I'm happy.
- Go to the police. - Will you take me?
I'll give you the name of the detective to see.
I'll be treated with care if you come. If they don't know you're special, they kill you.
I don't think they kill you.
Mrs Louisa Kittredge, I am black.
I... will deliver you to them,
with kindness and affection.
I'll plead guilty and go to prison and serve a few months.
- A few months, tops. - And when I get out, I'll work for you.
- No, we'll work all that out. - No, no, no, no. I want to know now.
- You'll work for us. - Learn the trade, not just the grotty part.
- Top to bottom. - And live with you.
- No. - Why? Your kids are away.
- You should have your own place. - Will you help me find a place?
We'll help you find a place.
- I have no furniture. - We'll help you out.
I made a list of things I liked at the museum. Philadelphia Chippendale.
Believe it or not, we have two Philadelphia Chippendale chairs.
I'd rather have one nice piece than a room full of junk.
(laughs)
Quality always.
You'll have all that. Philadelphia Chippendale!
And all I have to do is go to the police.
Make it all history.
Put it behind you.
- Tonight. - Oh. No, it can't be tonight.
I'll take you tomorrow. I have to have drinks before the auction tonight.
- Japanese? - Germans.
You are just like my father.
- Which father? - Sidney!
Paul...
he's not your father.
And Flanders...
is not your father.
Ouisa, for Christ's sakes!
Are you still on the phone? We have drinks with the Japanese...
Is it still that kid? Get him out of our lives!
Get him off the phone or I'll rip the fucking line out of the wall!
Paul?
I made a mistake. It is not the Germans. We'll come and get you. Where are you?
We'll take you to the police. They'll treat you with dignity.
Um...
I'm at the corner of 6th Avenue and 4th Street.
But I'll meet you at the Waverly movie theatre.
- We'll be there in half an hour. - I'll give you 15 minutes' grace time.
We'll be there.
Paul...
We love you.
Ouisa.
I love you, Ouisa Kittredge.
Hey.
Bring a pink shirt?
We'll have a wonderful life.
We can skip the schmoozing, take the boy to the police, and be at Sotheby's by nine.
Sure.
But we hadn't counted on... traffic.
(Flan) Traffic.
(Ouisa) Traffic.
We'd promised Paul we would take him to the police.
(Flan) I called our new best friend, the detective.
Paul! Officer, please! Let us go with him! We promised we would go with him!
- Paul? Paul? - No, Ouisa.
Officer, please. Paul!
The Kandinsky is painted on both sides!
- There's nothing more you could do. - (Flan) I didn't think so, no.
The next day, Ouisa went to the precinct.
Detective Marino, please.
- He's transferred. - Since yesterday?
He's transferred.
This is about an arrest that was made yesterday at the Waverly movie theatre.
Hold on.
This precinct didn't go to the Waverly theatre.
- I didn't imagine it. - I'm not sayin' you did.
- Perhaps you can tell me which precinct... - Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
The name?
Um...
Poitier. Or Kittredge.
Uh...
- Are you family? - Not exactly.
The detective told me that I could go with the young man when he was arraigned,
so I could tell them that he was... special...
We have no record of it. Some other precinct must have made the arrest.
It sounds like your special friend was wanted for somethin' else.
Like what?
Lady, how can I help you? You don't even know your friend's name.
Six degrees.
We weren't family. We didn't know Paul's name.
I went to the district attorney's office.
We weren't family. We didn't know Paul's name.
I called the criminal courts. I wasn't family. I didn't know Paul's name.
I read today that a young man committed suicide in Rikers lsland prison,
and tied a shirt around his neck and hanged himself.
Was it the pink shirt?
A burst of colour. Pink shirt.
Was it Paul? We never did find out who he was.
I'm sure it wasn't him.
- Yes, I agree. - Isn't it amazing?
We haven't seen the last of him, believe me. He'll be back. He'll find a way.
The imagination... Oh!
- Why does it mean so much to you? - He wanted to be us.
Everything we are in the world.
This paltry thing, our life, he wanted it. He stabbed himself to get into our lives.
He envied us. We're not enough to be envied.
Like the papers said, we do have hearts.
Having a heart is not the point.
We were hardly taken in. We believed him for a few hours.
He did more for us in a few hours than our children ever did.
And he wanted to be your child. Don't let that go.
He sat out in that park and said "That man is my father."
He's in trouble, and we don't know how to help him.
Help him? My God! We could have been killed. Throats slashed.
You were attracted to him.
Oh, please. Cut me out of that pathology right now.
Attracted by his youth, his talent,
and the embarrassing prospect of being in the movie of Cats.
Well... that, yes. Yes.
Did you put that in your Times piece?
And we turn him into an anecdote to dine out on, like we're doing right now!
But it was an experience. I will not turn him into an anecdote.
How do we keep what happens to us?
How do we fit it into life without turning it into an anecdote?
With no teeth, and a punch line you'll mouth over and over for years.
"Oh, that reminds me of that impostor."
"Oh, tell the one about that boy."
And we become these human jukeboxes, spilling out these anecdotes.
But it was an experience.
How do we keep the experience?
That's why I love paintings.
Cézanne, the problems he brought up then are the problems painters still deal with.
Colour. Structure.
Those are problems.
There is colour in my life, but I'm not aware of any structure.
What are you saying, darling?
Cézanne would leave blank spaces in his canvases
if he couldn't account for the brush stroke...
couldn't... give a reason for the colour.
Then I am a collage of unaccounted-for brush strokes.
I... am all...
random.
- Excuse me. - Ouisa!
- Do sit down! - Excuse me, please.
Ouisa!
What kind of behaviour is this?
God, Flan, how much of your life can you account for?
Are you drunk? What's wrong with you? Don't you realise how important she is?
Why are you unhappy? The Cézanne sale went through, and the Matisse.
We're rich - enough. Next month there's a Bonnard.
These are the times I could take a knife and dig out your heart. How much of...
..my life can I account for?! All of it!
I am a gambler.
We're a terrible match.
(Paul) The Kandinsky.
The Kandinsky's painted on two sides.
(workman) Batti! Batti! Tanto siamo al fresco. Hit it!